0
Manufacturers and distributors have continued to explore further business opportunities at the ongoing Food & Beverage West Africa Exhibition taking place at the Landmark Event Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.
This is as they also praised Nigeria’s strategic position as the economic hub of West Africa, saying their emphasis on participating at the exhibition is to explore opportunities to further deepen their brands in the subregion.
Speaking at the event which brought together key stakeholders in the food and beverage value chain from America, Asia, Europe and other parts of the world, Mr. Brad Smith, the Exhibition Manager for Food & Beverage West Africa, expressed happiness at the growth of the event, saying it is basically put together for businesses to synergise.
“If you look at the show, we’re growing year on year. We’re bringing new exhibitors from new countries around the world. They’re all so excited to get into the Nigerian and West African markets,” he said.
He said the exhibition has continued to bring new products.
“So every year, you will see new exciting products that have never been seen before in West Africa. That’s what we’re here to do; it is to bring the global food and beverage industry to Nigeria for everybody to do business across the world. That’s our job.
“This is an opportunity for the manufacturers to meet distributors, retailers, and others in the value chain.
“All of these companies around the world are so keen and excited to be involved in the West African market, but they need to find the right people to work with, which ultimately is there in Asia, in Europe, in America, in India.
“They find them at this exhibition. We bring the world of food and beverage here, and we bring the buyers, the distributors, the importers from across the whole region.
“We bring them here as well, and they have that platform to connect and do business. There’s many factors within this. You’ve got so many new products coming into the country, which ultimately is then going to increase spend, increase trade, which allows them to continue and invest and grow their businesses.”
On the number of exhibitors, Mr. Brad said; “We have over 350 international producers from around the world, from around 50-plus countries, and we’ll be looking at around 6,000-plus attendees joining us from across West Africa and further afield.”
Also speaking, Betsy Riggs, Operations Manager, Food & Beverage, Imex Management, USA, said they are excited to be at the exhibition.
“I’m so happy with our stand and again we have more companies here. We’ve already had one buyer delegation stop by and hoping to see more. So yeah so far so good.
“Exhibitors are really happy. Sure so we have this organisation called South Studs, Southern United States Trade Association and basically they provide export funding and services to U.S. companies in the United States region. They brought two companies here.
“One is a distillery and the other one has a variety of like spices and chicken products. And then they have a sister group which is called Food Export USA Midwest Northeast. Those help companies in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States.”
On his own, George Phillips, the Commercial Director of Tropical Sun Foods, UK, applauded the exhibition, saying they had been coming for the event for years.
“We’ve been doing this show in Lagos now for seven years. So we’re one of the early exhibitors at this show,” he said.
“Our brand’s been in Nigeria for about ten years, and we use this show as a very good way to meet customers, meet new distributors, meet importers, and also to meet partners from other markets close around Nigeria, you know, Ghana and these places.”
On his assessment of the Nigeria market, and how they are penetrating, he said; “I think the last two years have been quite difficult because of the currency. I think it is difficult for everyone in Nigeria. But we see the market stabilizing now, so in the last 12 months the market has been more stable.
“I think we understand that because the currency’s now low compared to 18 months ago, you know, the prices are quite high for Nigeria. So our job is always to look for everything we can do to keep the price as sensible as possible. So you know, that’s trying to save on the shipping, combining the products so you’re shipping more efficiently, paying less to get the products to Nigeria.
On his own, Mr Chirajit Pakrasi of Venus Processing and Packaging Nigeria said;
“We are a brand called Simpli. We are part of the Primlax Group, which is interested in processed foods, steel, as well as logistics. We manufacture, we have our own manufacturing in Nigeria.
“And we manufacture frozen foods like yam fries, plantains, and sweet potatoes. And we don’t only sell in Nigeria. We export to a lot of different countries like UK, Canada, South Africa.
“We are also partners to various global good service restaurants, not only in Nigeria, outside Nigeria also, in West Africa. And we also supply to major restaurants and hotels and retail shops in Nigeria under the brand name Simpli. Our idea is from the farm tdirectly to your plates.”
While speaking, Immanuel Linggal, an exhibitor from Indonesia, described Nigeria as a huge market with vast opportunities and economic partnership that many countries continue to cultivate.
He said Indonesian firms will stop at nothing to explore joint ventures with Nigerian companies to expand market access and product penetration.
The West African food and beverage market is worth $325.84 billion according to Statista. This is expected to grow at an annual rate of 9.89 per cent between 2025 and 2030.
The food services market itself reached $6.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $11.4 billion by 2033.
